A majority - 66 per cent - of Emirati women felt it was important to have female doctors tending to them, and only 28.8 per cent felt there were enough of them.

However, Dr Sarah Khan, the primary author of the study, noted that it also found that Emirati women often prefer to go to male doctors “as they think they are more qualified”.

"Even though women would prefer female doctors or cardiologists, that was not a barrier to their healthcare behaviour,” she said. “It was culturally permissible for them to approach male doctors.”

Dr Walid Shaker, consultant and cardiothoracic surgeon and head of department at Burjeel Hospital, believes the lack of female cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in the country may be a factor in the late detection of heart disease in women.

“Maybe the women in the Middle East are not very well exposed to medical services. They prefer a female doctor and this makes the accessibility to medical services a little less than in men,” he said.